The meaning of the term social security varies from country to country.

In socialist countries, the nations goal is to provide complete citizen security. In capitalist countries, a measure of protection is afforded to a needy in consistence with resources of the state.

According to the Social Security adopted by the ILO in 1952, following are the nine components of social security. o Medical care o Sickness benefit o Unemployment benefit o Old-age benefit o Employment injury benefit o Family benefit

o o o

Maternity benefit Invalidity benefit Survivors benefit

There are various laws and acts that have been passed since independence to govern the functioning of a company. These provide social security to the employees of companies. The following are some of the important laws and acts. The Employees State Insurance Act, 1948 The Employees Provident Fund Act, 1952 The Workmens Compensation Act, 1923

The Maternity Benefit Act, 1961 The Industrial Disputes Act, 1947

The Employees state insurance Act was passed in1948 to make various social welfare facilities available to the employees of a company through one agency. The Employee State Insurance Scheme (ESIS) is a compulsory and causative scheme for the well-being of the employees. According to this Act, a company should provide medical benefits, such as medical attendance, treatment, drugs and injections to the insured employees having salary less than rs. 6500. the scheme covers

their family members too. This Act is applicable only to the companies that employ 20 employees or more. The following are the benefits provided by this Act; Sickness Benefits: are given to employees for a maximum period of 91 days. It is half of the daily average wage of the employee. For getting the sickness benefits the employee

Should be under medical treatment at a hospital maintained by the company. Extended sickness benefit is also given to the insured employees who suffer from long term diseases. In this case, the employee can get sickness benefit for a maximum period of 309 days and the payment given to the employee is 63% of the wages. Sickness benefit is useful to an employee who is unable to work due to illness. The employee also gets medical treatment and financial support.

 Medical

Benefit: is a form of free medical treatment that an employee claims in case of illness, maternity and accident. The employee get these benefit at an ESI hospital or dispensary of the doctor who is treating the worker. The family of the insured worker also avails this benefit. Workers suffering from the critical diseases, such as tuberculosis, cancer and mental diseases are provided special facilities.

 Maternity

Benefit: is in the form of cash payment to the insured women for confinement, miscarriage or illness during pregnancy. This benefit is calculated at half of average daily wages. If the insured women dies during the period of confinement, the nominee gets the benefit for the whole period.

 Disablement

Benefit: is given in case an employee gets permanent disabled. The benefit is given when an employee is caught in an accident with in the factory. The annual benefits depend on the nature of the disability. In the case of temporary disability full pay is given to the employee for the period of disability. For permanent disability the employee is given cash benefit for life at a a percentage of full rate.

 Dependents

Benefit : is given to the insured deceased employees dependents. The benefit is given if an employee dies in an accident with in the factory. The family of the employee is entitled to cash benefit under this scheme. The widow receives pension for life.

 Funeral

Benefit: is given in the form of cash up to maximum of Rs. 1000 to the insured individual for the funeral. This benefit is given to the eldest person or the person who is actually incurring the expenditure at the time of funeral.

The Employees Provident Fund Act, launched in 1952, provides retirement benefits to the employee of a company. Retirement benefits include Provident fund, family pension and deposit-linked insurance. This Act is applicable to companies in India with 20 Employees or more. It is not applicable to companies registered under the Co-operative Societies Act,1912 or under any other law related to cooperative societies with less than 50 individuals.

This scheme is applicable to the employees getting a salary of Rs. 5000 per month. The government of India as introduced various schemes under this Act. These are as follows. Employees Pension Scheme, 1995; was introduced for individual employees of a company. Under this scheme, the employees are provided 50% of the salary as their pension after retirement or superannuation after completing 33 years of service.

Death relief fund; was established by the Government in January 1964 in order to provide financial help to the nominees or the successor member of the family whose salary does not exceed Rs. 1000 per month.

Gratuity Scheme; was a scheme introduced under the payment of Gratuity Act, 1972. it is meant for factories, mines, oil fields, plantations, railways and other companies. These act is applicable for employees who obtain salaries less than or equal to rs. 3500 per month.

Employees Deposit-Linked insurance scheme; was launched for the members of Employees Provident Fund and exempted provident Funds on 1 august 1976. according to this scheme after the expiry of the member of the provident fund, the individual allowed to obtain the provident fund deposits would be given an extra payment equal to the average balance in the provident fund account of the deceased person during the last three years.

This scheme is applicable only when the average amount is greater than or equal to rs.1000 Group Life insurance; is a plan that provides coverage for the risk on the lives of a number of individuals under one contract. However, the insurance on each life is independent from the insurance of individuals. This facility is given to the employees who work with an employer without evidence of insurability.

Following are the features of group life insurance. Insurance is provided to the employees without any evidence of insurability The insurance contract is signed between the insurance company and the employer. There is no direct interaction of the employee with the insurance company. It is a yearly insurance plan. In case of an employees death, the claim

Received from the insurance company is given to the nominee of the employee. The premium of the insurance is either paid by the employer or by both the employer and the employee.

It was established by the Government in 1923. according to this act , a company needs to provide compensation to its employees and their families on the occurrence of organizational accident or disease leading to the death of or any kind of disability to the individual. The main objective of this act is to ensure a commitment on the employers to offer compensation to the employees against accidents that occur during the course of

Employment. The important features are as follows; This act provides social security to the employees of a company by providing them compensation against the various risk. A company is liable to pay the compensation only if the accident or the injury to the employee has been caused during the course of employment.

This act also provides overtime pay and the value of concessions for benefits in the form of food, clothing and accommodation. The amount of compensation that a company needs to pay an employee depends on the type of injury or disability suffered by the employee. The minimum amount of compensation that must be paid to an employee on the occurrence of permanent disability or death is

Rs. 60,000 and 50,000 respectively. However, the maximum amount of compensation that must be paid to an employee on the occurrence of permanent disability or death is rs. 2.28 lakh and rs. 2.74 lakh respectively.

It came into being in1961. this is a compensation given against the loss of salary to a woman who discontinues work during pregnancy. Following are the main objectives of this act. It enables a female employee of a company to withdraw her services six weeks before her expected confinement date. It allows the female employee to discontinue her services after six weeks of confinement.

It provides free medical treatment to a female employee during her pregnancy. It provides an expecting female employee the facility of public funds along with cash benefits so that she can take good care of herself and her child. It disallows the dismissal of a female employee during her pregnancy period. It allows a female employee to feed her baby twice a day during working hours.

It was passed in 1947. This act is related to the termination and retrenchment of the employees by a company. It includes sections 25-A to 25-S related to employee termination.amongst these sections ,sections 25-c to 25-e are not applicable companies that employee less than 50 individuals.sections 25-c states that when any permanent employee who has worked for more than or equal to 1 year is be terminated by the

Company , the company is liable to provide a compensation equal to the 50% of his/her basic salary. Section 25-c also states that the companies is not responsible to give any compensation to an employee if he or she refuses to accept an alternative job equivalent to his or her previous job. A company is also not liable to give compensation if he or she does not reach the work place at the schedule time during normal working hours at least once a day.